The Chandler [Oklahoma] News-Publicist, Friday, 4 February 1898, p. 4

COWARDLY MURDER!
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Postmaster Rhine, of Wellston, Killed by a Charge of Shot Fired Through a Glass Door At Midnight!

      The most cowardly and cold-blooded murder ever perpetrated in the territory was committed at Wellston last Tuesday night at midnight.  Between 12 and 1 o’clock in the night a knock was heard at the front door of the store of Postmaster I. G. Rhine.  Mr. Rhine’s daughter got up, went into the store and asked what was wanted.  The party at the door asked if Mr. Rhine was at home.  She replied that he was, and went up stairs and told her father.  Mr. Rhine at once put on his pants and came down in his stocking feet.  He went to the door and asked what was wanted.  The person outside replied that he wanted some medicine for his sick wife.  Mr. Rhine then put the lamp, which he had brought down with him, on the counter and went to the door to open it.  As he was in the act of unlocking the door he looked through the glass in the door and saw the barrel of a shot gun pointing at his body.  As he saw the gun he turned his body sideways and dodged backwards, but as he did so the gun was fired and the load of shot struck him in the right side below the ribs.  Mr. Rhine staggered back to the rear of the store, where he fell.  The daughter, on hearing the shot, opened a window upstairs and screamed murder.  The villain had started away, but when he heard Miss Rhine scream he pointed his gun at her and said he was brave enough to kill another one.  She then went to another window and screamed again.  The murderer was afoot and went off on a run.  He was seen passing the house of S. E. Dewees.
      Mr. Rhine lived until sun rise and was conscious to the last.  He was remarkably calm and collected.  He gave his wife minute directions about his business and the affairs of the post-office, telling her especially about two registered letters that were to be sent off.  In speaking of the shooting he stated that when he went to the door the moon was shining brightly and as he saw the man standing on the ground with the shot gun in his hand and he recognized him as James Taylor.  About ten minutes before the shooting Taylor called at the store of E. J. Williams and asked for some shot.  Williams got up and got him the shot.  He told Williams he was out hunting and had a coon treed near there.  As a number of dogs were howling outside, Williams accepted his explanation as true and went back to bed.
      Shortly after the alarm had been given, Geo. Davis, Jr., who lives on a farm adjoining Wellston, went after Constable L. W. Todd, who lives near Wellston.  On the way to Todd’s he met Taylor in the road with a shot gun in his hands.  Taylor stopped and asked him the direction to Wellston, and also asked him if he had been at Wellston and heard of any shooting there.  Davis heard Taylor cocking his gun and, being unarmed, knew he would be in danger if he told the truth.  So he told him he had not been to Wellston and had not heard anything.  Taylor said you needn’t be afraid of me, go ahead.  Davis then went to Todd’s house; roused him up and saddling horses as soon as possible they rode rapidly back to where he had met Taylor.  Taylor by that time had disappeared.  They then rode on to Wellston and Todd came in after Sheriff Gebke, arriving here about 4 o’clock.
      Gebke got out to Wellston about eight o’clock and by eleven o’clock searching parties were started out in different directions.  Couriers were dispatched to Carney, Edmond and Choctaw City to send telegrams to officers over the territory.  Taylor’s trail was taken up at the spot he met Davis and followed until lost in the underbrush.  Up to the present Taylor has not been captured.  A man afoot carrying a shot gun was seen near the Creek line east of Arlington Wednesday.
      A coroner’s inquest was held yesterday, at which several facts were disclosed as to the motive for the deed.  Mrs. Taylor, the wife of the miscreant, stated that the day before the killing she and her husband had been in Mr. Rhine’s store and when they returned home he was angry and jealous of Rhine and said that Rhine had smiled and winked at her in the store.  She denied that Rhine had done or said anything improper; said that he always smiled when greeting his customers and friends and that Taylor was unreasonable.  (Every one who knows Mr. Rhine will remember his habit of smiling when meeting an acquaintance.) Taylor was also jealous of Zach Robertson, a neighbor living on an adjoining farm.  Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were married Dec. 15th.  Mrs. Taylor was at the time the widow of a man named Shephard who had been killed by a well caving in on him a few months previously.  She lived on a school lease a mile and a quarter from Wellston.  Zach Robertson after her husband’s death was kind and neighborly to her and assisted her about the farm work.  After her marriage to Taylor he had not been around the place.  Mr. Rhine had also been kind to Mrs. Shephard and furnished her goods on credit.  After the conversation with his wife the night before the killing referred to, Taylor went to the store and made a settlement of his account there with Miss Rhine, but did not pay it.  Some little question arose over some of the items but the account was corrected to Taylor’s satisfaction.  The night of the killing he told his wife he was going to kill Rhine and Robertson and he started five different times with his gun, but she managed to dissuade him and kept him from going until the last time when he threatened to kill her also and started off in a jealous rage.  He returned home after the killing.  We have heard different reports as to what he said when he returned.  One was that he told his wife that Robertson was away from home, but that he had got Rhine all right.  Another report is that he told her he had shot through Robertson’s door.  He started off again a foot.  He had two horses but they were too poor to travel.
      Mr. Rhine was buried today by the Chandler lodge of Masons.  He was a Mason of high standing and was a popular and respected citizen wherever he lived.  From the facts as so far developed the murder was committed without the least provocation.  It is stated by those who claim to know Taylor that he killed two men previously to coming to this country but was tried and acquitted in both cases.  The people of Wellston and vicinity are terribly aroused over the affair, and if Taylor had been caught the next day the officers would have found it difficult to protect him from the vengeance of the people.

Return to Mary Martin bio page.

The Falls City [Nebraska] News, Friday, 4 February 1898, p. 1

ISAAC RHINE KILLED
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ASSASSINATED AT HIS OWN DOOR AT MIDNIGHT.
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Called From His Bed And Shot By a Neighbor.

      The many acquaintances of Isaac Rhine in this city were shocked yesterday morning by the news that he had been shot and killed at his home near Guthrie, Ok.  The following dispatch to the Kansas City Times of Thursday gives the details of the killing.
      “Isaac G. Rhine, postmaster of Wellston, and a well-known republican politician of Eastern Oklahoma, was shot and killed at 2 o’clock this morning in his dwelling.  He was called to the door and without one word of warning, was fired upon by a man from outside the door.  The assassin used a double-barrel shotgun, and both charges entered the right side tearing away at the abdomen.
      The assassin called at the store of Postmaster Rhine, and by knocking on the door of the store aroused Miss Rhine, who occupied a room over the store, directly over the porch.  She looked out the window and inquired what was wanted.  The man replied that his wife was sick and he wanted some medicine.
      Miss Rhine called her father, and he pulled on his trousers, without putting his shirt and coat on, and, taking the light in his hand, went downstairs.  The stairs led to the living rooms upstairs from the front end of the store.
      When Mr. Rhine reached the foot of the stairs and started to open the door the assassin fired the loads from both barrels of a shotgun through the glass door.  The shot struck Postmaster Rhine in the right side, just below the ribs.
      James Taylor, a neighbor, who bore a hatred toward Rhine, has disappeared, and suspicion points to him as the assassin.  Sheriff Gebke and posse are now hunting Taylor.  The tragedy has created intense excitement.”
      The murdered man was the son of Mrs. Sarah Rhine, now of Gove City, Kan., and for years lived in this county.  He left Nebraska about 14 years ago.  Isaac Rhine was a peaceable, upright man, and his untimely death was a sad blow to all who knew him.
      Mrs. Rhine was on her way to this city when she learned of her son’s death.

The Falls City [Nebraska] Journal, Friday, February 11, 1898

THE RHINE MURDER.
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SOME ADDITIONAL FACTS IN THE CASE.
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Causes That Led to the Tragedy. The Life and Character of the Murdered Man. The Funeral Services.

      The body of Isaac G. Rhine, the murdered postmaster of Wellston, Oklahoma was brought to this city Saturday night. The remains were accompanied by Mrs. Rhine, mother of the deceased.  In an interview with Mrs. Rhine a JOURNAL reporter learned the following facts in regard to the terrible tragedy of which her son was the victim.
      Mr. Rhine was a prominent politician and a leading citizen of Wellston and being a public spirited man he was always prominently identified with all enterprises tending toward the upbuilding of the town.  Across the river and about a mile distant from Wellston, is located the town of Ingalls and between these two towns a spirit of rivalry has always existed.  When the first railroad was being built through this section of the new territory it was a question as to wheather [sic] or not it would go by way of Wellston or Ingalls, and it was due to Mr. Rhine’s influence that the depot and postoffice were finally located at Wellston.  It was by this action that Mr. Rhine incurred the enmity of the citizens of Ingalls many of whom swore vengeance against him.  Of course what Wellston gained by the railroad, Ingalls lost and when there was talk of discontinuing the postoffice at Ingalls, the citizens became more and more inflamed against Mr. Rhine and at two o’clock last Wednesday morning the threats of vengeance were carried out.  As is often the case in small western towns, Mr. Rhine ran a drug store in connection with the postoffice, he and his family occupying the rooms on the second floor of the building.  About two o’clock on that fatal morning a man came to the store and by knocking on the door, aroused Miss Rhine, the murdered man’s daughter.  She at once went to the window and asked what was wanted.  The man below informed her that his wife was sick and that he wished to get some medicine, Miss Rhine then called her father who arose and having hastily dressed went down into the store.  He went to the front door and was about to unlock it when the man outside fired both barrels of a shot gun through the glass.  The shot struck Mr. Rhine just below the ribs and as he fell to the floor, the murderer disappeared in the darkness.  A man by the name of Taylor, who had repeatedly threatened Mr. Rhine was at once suspected but when officers went in search of him it was found that he had disappeared.  A posse was organized at once and pursuit began.  A telegram received by Mrs. Rhine the first of the week announced that the fugitive was surrounded, that it was only a question of time when he could be captured.
      The body was at once prepared for burial and sent to this city.  The funeral services were held Sunday afternoon from the Methodist church and were under the auspices of the A. O. U. W. of which organization the deceased was a member.  The church was filled with old friends and acquaintances of Mr. Rhine, who came to express their deep grief at his untimely death.
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      Isaac G. Rhine was born in Blackford county Indiana, July 18, 1850.  In 1860 he came west with his parents and located on a farm a mile north of Falls City.  He was married August 18, 1875 to Miss Mary Martin.  In 1868 Mr. Rhine united with the Methodist church and remained firm in the faith until the hour of his death.  In 1884, he removed to Oxford, Kansas and from thence to the Indian Territory, at the time of the opening of the Kickapoo strip.  He lived at various points but finally located at Wellston.  As Mr. Rhine was known in this community, so also, he was known in the new country of his adoption.  A conscientious Christian gentleman, a public spirited citizen and a man whose life was well spent in the doing of good.  The fact that such a life should be cut short by the hand of the assassin is lamentable indeed.  To the family whose home has been stained by the innocent blood of husband and father, their many friends extend heartfelt sympathy.